This invention generally relates to people-moving devices such as escalators. More particularly, this invention relates to combplate assemblies for people-moving devices.
Escalators, moving walkways and other people-moving devices efficiently move a large volume of pedestrian traffic from one place to another. Passengers can simply step on moving steps (or belts, or pallets) and are transported along a path at a constant rate of speed, for example.
In escalators, the steps are attached to a step chain that travels in a closed loop between first and second landings of the escalator. The steps typically exit the first landing and travel toward the second landing while they are exposed so they can be stepped upon by an individual. After reaching the second landing, the steps reverse direction within the system and return to the first landing while concealed within the frame or structure of the system. Near the first landing, the steps again reverse direction and proceed along the pathway from the first landing to the second landing as before.
One issue in designing and providing people-moving devices such as escalators is facilitating convenient and safe entry onto the device and exit from it. Passengers typically go from stepping on a stationary surface (i.e., the floor of a building) onto a moving surface (i.e., one of the steps of an escalator). This transitional point presents an opportunity for an individual to loose her balance.
A number of attempts have been made to address the concern of facilitating a safe transition between the moving surfaces of the device and the adjacent stationary floor surfaces. One attempt has been to provide signs near the entry and exit points of the people-moving device. One difficulty associated with such signs is that they must be positioned outside of the moving path or they hinder the access to the people-moving device. Since the signs are outside of the moving path, their effectiveness is reduced. Additionally, providing signs introduces costs and reduces the aesthetic appearance of the device compared to its surrounding building structure.
Another suggestion has been to paint the landing entry and exit points with cautionary colors to highlight the difference in velocity between the stationary surface and the moving parts. Typical people-moving devices include a combplate assembly at the transition point. It has been suggested to paint the combplate assemblies with appropriate colors.
A major shortcoming of the painting technique is that traffic quickly wears down the paint, which increases maintenance cost and results in a less than finished look.
Another approach has been to add colored plastic inserts that are riveted to the steps of an escalator. A major drawback to this approach is the additional machining requirements and the additional cost added to the steps. Further, there is the possibility for the plastic inserts to become loose, which requires additional maintenance.
One other approach has been suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,213. In that patent, a polymeric coating is bonded to the combplate. The coating is described in that patent as a plasticized polyvinyl chloride. While this approach has advantages over the two mentioned above, one disadvantage is that it alters the material characteristics of the exposed surface of the combplate, including the friction coefficient. Another drawback to that approach is the associated cost.
Those skilled in the art are constantly striving to make improvements. This invention provides an improved combplate assembly that has enhanced durability and avoids the shortcomings and drawbacks of the previous approaches described above.
In general terms, this invention is a combplate assembly for use in a people-moving device that has a colored powder coating that is adhered to the comb portion of the assembly. The preferred embodiment includes a polyester-based powder coating that is baked onto the comb portion of the assembly.
A method of coating a combplate assembly according to this invention preferably includes several basic steps. First, the comb is prepared by removing all undesirable debris. The powder coating is then applied and cured to secure it to the comb. In the currently preferred embodiment, a polyester-based powder coating, which is used and is cured by heating the coating at a temperature of approximately 400xc2x0 F.
The various features and advantages of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the currently preferred embodiment. The drawings that accompany the detailed description can be briefly described as follows.